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Doug Galullo, Tedd Mullally, Ken Gutermuth,
Chris Kreuter and Bruce Reiff compare misery. |
Marvin Birnbaum, Jason Levine, Eugene
Hourany and defending champ Harald Henning |
no
longer enlightened ...
The event continues to cling to life as a pre-con. While players
appreciate the ability to play and then hop to another pre-con
event, this does not make for a favorable 'Enlightenment Style"
event which requires dedicated play through numerous rounds by
a majority of the field. We had 22 players in the first round
dwindling to 17 in the second, and a mere 12 for the third. With
this trend, it has been suggested that the event return to heats
as the Enlightenment scoring method is flawed with a field which
fluctuates so much between rounds. I mean if Bruce Reiff can
win his only wood in the AOR pre-con, something is definitely
wrong!
In general, players were more serious this year. We did not
have as many mishaps, though Mark Smith seemed to draw the most
innovative players. There was an increase in the impact misery
had on the games with several players sent into CHAOS, including
yours truly. There were surprisingly no objections to the new
Time Limit. However, there were more than a few people concerned
about the meta-game and the scoring calculation. Alas, if we
go with the new format the calculation will no longer be an issue
Genoa had the best overall win rate taking 45% of the games.
Veteran players were able to convert Hamburg, Paris, and even
beleaguered Venice into wins. London had an off year, no doubt
due to the strain of simultaneously hosting the Olympics.
There was a definite trend toward early Ocean Navigation even
if the respective leaders have not yet arrived. A few games allowed
a player to have income over $100 for multiple turns, arguing
that they were not winning. And yet, a few tables had bloodbaths
in Epoch 2, ignoring the conventional wisdom of holding hammers
until the start of Epoch 3. There was one table that never even
saw Crusades due to early Mongol Armies.
A few entrance polls were taken with no clear trend. The field
was split on whether the WAR card should be swapped for a deck
2 Timber card. One attendee submitted a suggestion to start with
two cards and pick one, shuffle the rest back into Deck 1.
So there are some interesting changes in the works for 2013.
I hope to see the return of our honored former champions Ewan
McNay, Steve & Ted Simmons, heck, even Terry Coleman!! Perhaps
some of our staunch supporters from the Enlightenment mini-con
era like Pete Staab, Thomas Browne, Mark Neal, or Eric Wroebel
will make time for us again next year. Let's just hope we don't
have to deal with the return of Bill Crenshaw!!!
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Jon Anderson, David Hood, Jeff Mullet,
Jeremiah Peterson and Patrick Murphy |
Doug Galullo, Tedd Mullally and the
BPA Chairman of the Board count chips. |
Play By Email 2012
The 2009 BPA Age of Renaissance Email Tournament has
finally come to a close to earn the delegation of 2012. It involved
50 players in three rounds of games taking nearly three years
to complete. A total of 13 game starts struggled to the finish
line. Since no one has started anoher event in the interim, it
appears the days of AOR played via email are over and
have joined Enlightenment as a thing of the past.
In the 5-player, 8-turn final that included two heavy weights
and two tournament newcomers, Jeff Mullet as Genoa defeated Carl
Damke (Paris), Robert Davidson (London), George Young (Barcelona)
and Stephen Koehler (Venice). Jeff used a Turn 6 Enlightened
Ruler to open a slight misery lead, along with Interest &
Profit and Industry to beat Paris with the commerce strategy.
Going last and purchasing Cathedral on Turn 8 allowed Genoa to
end the game with over $600, defeating Paris by 200 points despite
having less advances. Tournament newcomer Robert stayed close
until Turn 7, while the other newcomer Stephen struggled with
misery and maintaining a board presence. Mark Frueh took sixth
place laurels by virtue of his close finish in the semis.
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